


Kouyou

by Sweetsugariness



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Romance, Silver Millennium Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-20 21:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16563746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetsugariness/pseuds/Sweetsugariness
Summary: ((Post-Stars, Manga Canon, Slightly AU, Sen/Shi shipping)) Nephrite has no interest in the strange phenomenon that has turned Japan's autumn leaves into gray. But Makoto Kino is interested and despite himself he's interested in her. A conversation with the reborn Sailor Jupiter brings up old memories of an old love...





	Kouyou

It would be completely ridiculous and quite corny to say that he noticed her before he noticed the trees. Her reddish brown ponytail swayed in autumn wind, vibrant against the dull-gray leaves that should have been the same shade as her hair.

Grumbling, annoyed at himself, he walked to her. When the trees first drained themselves of their color, there had been a thick ring of people around this park. People were fascinated, horrified, intrigued...until they weren’t. (Honestly, people’s ability to ignore the obviously odd, the man thought, made villainy all too easy back in the day.)

He had barely seen anyone around today. He himself only deviated from his normal path home because it was nice and cool, so he wanted to enjoy the weather in solitude. Although it was strange, the trees did not concern him.  Only the girl still seemed spellbound by the ashen flora in front of her.

Stopping a foot behind the young woman, he cast his eyes over the trees. Most towered over them, and considering their heights, that was saying something! The constant wind made palm-shaped leaves shake and shudder, made them rustle against each other. As far as he could tell, they looked healthy, but healthy Japanese maples were not grey from the roots up.

She shook her head and turned. Her green eyes caught his. “Nephr-” She only let that slip before snapping her mouth shut with a teeth-snapping click. When he barked a laugh, her face turned red and she muttered: “Sorry, Mata...Maya...what was that name you cooked up again?”

Nephrite frowned. “Billionaire investor, Masato Sanjouin, I worked hard on that persona, you know?” He bragged. “Worked even harder to reclaim it after I came back from the dead.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” The girl asked with a groan. “By the time we met you were kidnapping grooms and we didn’t have much time to chat.” She folded her arms and her eyes went back to the trees. Not looking at Nephrite, she went on.. “I bet you’ve forgotten my name anyways.”

Nephrite could have left her there, he probably should have. He had fresh produce in his arms - it was his turn to cook, and he needed all the time he could get. Nephrite would rather die - for the third time - then have a repeat of the night Jadeite got sick from his undercooked curry. He remembered that Zoisite laughed for weeks and weeks at the both of them. So the longer he had to prepare, the better.

However, she had given him a challenge, and Nephrite felt he ought to rise to it.

“Sailor Jupiter, or Makoto Kino.” He answered. Makoto whipped her head back to face his. “Our prince told us about all of you. You are the one who feeds the princess he loves too many sweets.”

 

“If you saw the faces Usagi-chan makes then you wouldn’t be able to resist either!” Makoto claimed. She puffed up her cheeks and batted her lashes. Nephrite ground his teeth, as if it could stop the heat that flickered on his cheeks. “It’s always: ‘Please, please Mako-chan! Just one more! I’ll eat more veggies at dinner to make up for it, I’ll even eat carrots, please!’”

 

They both laughed. Usagi charmed his prince into buying jewelry and clothes the same way. He’d seen her charm Mamoru many times and teased him for it many times. Of course, he’d never been so easily swayed...but then again, he was talking to a young woman who reminded him of  a past love. Makoto had stopped him in his tracks without even a glance.

 

Nephrite coughed to cut his laughs short. “Well, I’ll be seeing-”

 

“What does Mamouru-san think about what’s going on? About the trees, I mean.” Makoto asked. The change in her expression stunned him. From friendly to determined in a second, but still the same earnestness blazed in those green eyes. He felt if he looked in them too long, they would make more memories arise. Memories he knew better than to project onto an entirely new being.

 

So Nephrite averted his own brown ones and muttered: “He says the earth doesn’t feel ‘wrong’ to him. It’s just as the scientists and the reporters have said, the trees are fine despite the coloring.”

 

Makoto put her fingers to her lips, round peachy lips that still shone despite only chapstick coating them… Oh hell, he needed to stop. He needed to get away from her. He started to walk away.

 

“Ami-chan says the same thing, but Rei-chan, she said something odd.” Makoto murmured. Nephrite stopped in his tracks once more. “She said there’s spiritual energy here, but not malevolent energy. So something is wrong!” He watched her move towards the tree in front of them. She placed her hand on the ashen bark, and closed her eyes. “I just know it!”

* * *

 

Nephrite charged up the stone steps of the Golden Kingdom’s palace. He sped across the bridge connecting the castle to the grounds and kept running. He slid his sword from his sheath and his shadow became a shield in his free hand. He finally stopped in front of a woman. “You!” He told the intruder. “ State your business here!”

 

He leapt backwards, avoiding the flash of lightning she cast at him.

 

“Unless you’re looking for a battle, don’t come for me with weapons drawn, Knight!” Sailor Jupiter  said, green fire in her eyes.

 

Nephrite still held his shield up. “Answer me, White Moon Soldier. Why are you here?”

 

She folded her arms and continued to glare. If she did not answer soon he’d strike, Nephrite thought. Although he had particularly paid attention when the Prince spoke of this guardian. She had powers not only over lightning, but also flora. And they were in the castle gardens - actually, from how the trees around nearly blotted the sun above them it was better to say they were in a forest. He’d be trounced pretty badly but Nephrite would be damned before he’d let a warrior of the White Moon see him frightened of her.

 

So he bit back the sigh of relief when Sailor Jupiter let her arms hang loosely at her sides and softened her grimace into a simple pout. “The Princess. I was supposed to escort her to a meeting with some of her royal advisors, but She was not in her chambers when I came for her. She is here, I just know it!”

 

Nephrite thought for a moment. Hadn’t he seen a flash of gold, like the hair of that heiress, pass here some time ago? And his prince said he needed some air, to take a walk in nature by himself. His prince insisted he needed to be by himself.  Nephrite hadn’t pieced together his ward’s stubbornness - or how only through gritted teeth did Kunzite allow the prince to leave unguarded - ‘til this moment. He magicked his shield back into a shadow and withdrew his sword. “I have a hunch your princess is with my prince. Last I saw, he went north of here.”

 

“Honestly, Serenity...” Jupiter huffed, shaking her head. She walked in the direction Nephrite pointed, but stopped and looked back as Nephrite followed her. “What? Still mistrustful of me?”

 

“I need to find my prince as well. Besides you do not know these grounds like I do." Nephrite answered.

 

The slight smile that bloomed on her face transformed her, Nephrite thought. Jupiter no longer looked liked a fierce fighter, but inviting and friendly. “I’ll take that as your offer to help me and to work together,” She said. “It is appreciated.”

 

“I - I never said that at all!” Nephrite tossed his wavy locks to one side veling his reddening face.. “Are all the people of the Moon so presumptuous and arrogant?!”

 

“Only if the people of Earth take our gratitude so poorly!” Jupiter snapped back.

Tension filled the foot distance between them as they silently walked through the trees. At first, Nephrite looked ahead, his mind buzzing with sharp words he’d give his monarch once he and the White Moon’s princess were found. But then the footsteps at his side grew softer and softer, then stopped. He ought to continue but curiosity nipped at him. So he glanced behind him to look at her.

 

Sailor Jupiter looked up at a tree, holding a reddish leaf in her hand. She walked up to the tree and placed her hand on the bark. A sudden warmth radiated from her, so strong that Nephrite could feel caress his skin through his clothes. “W-What are you doing now?”

 

“Healing this tree.” She answered, not even opening her eyes. At her feet small plants began to sprout, rings of flowers rippled around him and her, but the tree remained the same. “It’s quite sick, look at the leaves.”

 

“Wait, no.” Nephrite told her. “The tree is fine.” The power flow stopped, as did that cozy, nurturing feeling that her magic gave off. “The leaves don’t change colors in the fall up on the Moon?”

 

“‘Fall?” Sailor Jupiter echoed. Her lips parted slightly into a small ‘o,’ and her brows knitted themselves.

 

The confusion she broadcasted reminded Nephrite of what Kunzite would say each and every time the two royal guards spared. Kunzite claimed Nephrite was too obvious when he fought, too eager to show exactly what he was thinking and feeling. The leader of the Shitennou beat Nephrite soundly, constantly, so Nephrite lately had been practicing keeping his face a mask. To see Sailor  Jupiter so unabashedly sincere made him stumble slightly. “Are you alright?”

 

“Fine, fine.” He said, rubbing his face as if he could scrub the red off his cheeks. He uncovered his face when it stopped feeling so hot, but the wide-eyed concerned expression Jupiter gave off as she watched threatened to warm him up yet again. “Do you not have any seasons up there? I know at least that the Prince wanted to visit the Moon again when the lakes grew icy enough for skating.”

 

“Oh! That!” Sailor Jupiter said and then smiled. “Your prince must misunderstand, the climates of the moon are artificially created and maintained.  There are places that are ice and snow, and there are places that are green and lush. My preference is for the latter, obviously.”

 

“So there is no Fall. It’s an in-between stage after summer and before winter.” Nephrite explained. “The leaves change colors before falling off, it steadily becomes colder.”

 

The amazement in her gaze on just a tumbling, little leaf, it amazed him somehow. And when her bright, peach-lipped smile returned so did the color on his face. Soon his face matched the red leaf she caught it and held up in a small beam of sunlight.

 

“It’s actually quite pretty!” Sailor Jupiter exclaimed. “We should ask the Queen for some trees that change like these.” She lowered the leaf slowly, and looked down. “Honestly, nothing changes on the Moon, save for the setting of the Earth each day. The Silver Millenium is all beautiful but, I’m not surprised the princess finds your planet fascinating.”

 

“That is surprising,” Nephrite said as he moved closer to her. “Many here find comfort in things that stay the same, traditions and rituals…that’s why this new closeness with the White Moon Kingdom distresses some.”

 

“What about you?” She asked, Because her eyes were too round and too green for Nephrite to focus on, he looked down as well, and caught her hands. If Nephrite’s heart was on his sleeve hers was on her gloved fingers that tenderly but constantly stroked the leaf in her palms. She was nervous? About his answer? Why would she feel like that that? He wondered.

 

“Well, I admit, I’m starting to see what makes Earthlings also look to the moon, our constant companion.” He smiled, in his mind taking a leap. There was no point in hiding these feelings anymore, not around someone so enjoyably sincere. The face-lighting smile Sailor Jupiter told him his leap landed him in the clouds.

* * *

 

“Sanjouin-san...Sanjouin - Earth, to Nephrite, hello?” Nephrite stumbled, but Makoto caught his groceries before they hit the sidewalk. “You must have been really distracted.”

 

“Yes, apologies...” He uttered miserably. He knew his face must be the color of camellias by now. But the shade faded when an idea hit him. “Kino-san, have to tried healing the trees?”

 

Makoto blinked. “No,” she answered. “Everyone says they’re fine, just the color is off.”

Nephrite smiled at her. “But Hino-san said that there was a spiritual problem correct? You power isn’t just healing for the trees, it’s...peaceful and summery, like reaching towards the sun.” Although his goal wasn’t to make the girl blush, a small part of him felt happy that Makoto went slightly pink. “So you might be able soothe whatever spirit is here causing this. Do you remember how you used that magic in the past?”

 

“The past? You mean the Silver Millenium?!” Makoto frowned. “I...I think I do, lately I’ve been able to remember more.” Nephrite hoped she hadn’t heard the skip of his heart in his chest when she said that. If she did, she didn’t speak it, she simply turned back to the trees in front of them.

 

Slowly, hesitantly, she placed her palm on one of the barks. Nephrite could feel her power sputter and spill in small ripples, not smoothly stream out like in his memories, but eventually enough leaked out. It felt like a drizzle of fragrant tea rained over them, covering the greening grass, the flowers that bloomed at their feet, and the trees that painted themselves autumn tones once more. Slowly, color returned to each one, the greyscale wave was ebbed back by a new sea of reds and yellows as far as the eye could see.

 

“That -That actually worked!” Makoto cheered!

 

“Of course it did, it was my idea after all.” Nephrite said with a grin, and then a laugh when Makoto swatted him playfully.

 

“You stood there and looked pretty, I did all the heavy lifting.” Makoto quipped, giggling too until she heard a small voice. Nephrite went quiet as he noticed it as well. The both of them moved towards it, towards the edge of the park, and a translucent young girl with tears in her eyes appeared.

 

“I, I don’t like this at all!” The child blubbered. “It’s too scary! Those leaves look like fire!”

 

“You did this to the trees?” Makoto asked as she knelt in front of the crying girl. She tried to put her hand on her shoulder but it went through the child’s frame. Nephrite knelt next to Makoto and held her so she wouldn’t fall over.

 

“They were scary!” The girl insisted. “Scary like fire, hot, burning fire! That lady’s awful fire!”

 

“‘That lady’s fire?’” Nephrite echoed. “Do you know what she’s talking about, Kino-san?”

 

With a grim expression, Makoto nodded. “I think so. Has Mamoru-san told you about the Black Moon Clan?”

 

“Yes, he spoke to us about it once when we were still stones.” Nephrite replied.

“There was a woman who could make flames like Mars but…” She snarled angrily. “...it’s one thing to fight us but a child? That monster! That monster must  have -” Guilt flashed across her face. Instead of finishing her train of thought, Makoto turned to the girl and smiled at her. “I’m sorry for yelling, but you don’t need to worry. My friends and I made sure that they lady can’t hurt anyone anymore.”

 

“You...you did?” The girl child murmured, rubbing the ghostly tears from her face.

 

“We did.” Makoto assured her. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore of fires or trees or anything.”

 

“But that would mean...you’re a Sailor Senshi!” The girl asked, her eyes alight with excitement.

 

“I am, I’m Sailor Jupiter - and this guy -” Nephrite blushed when she tapped his shoulder. “You haven’t seen him much, but he works for Tuxedo Mask.”

 

“Do you?” The girl asked again, radiating her wonder to Nephrite this time.

 

He replaced his shock with a smirk. “That is correct, I am Tuxedo Mask’s knight of comfort and protection, Nephrite. It’s an honor to meet you, young lady.”

 

Finally the girl broke out a smile of pure happiness. “That’s amazing!” Nephrite only looked at that smile at first, so he almost didn’t realize the girl’s form was fading and fading more. “If it’s you telling me not to be afraid, then I won’t be, I promise!” He heard a gasp at his side, Makoto must have just noticed the fading too, he realized. “I’m sorry about what I did to the trees, but thank you.”

 

The girl vanished into balls of light that faded upwards.

 

“That poor girl,” Makoto sighed. “We should have saved her.”

 

“You gave her peace, and the woman who killed her was slain.” Nephrite stood up and then then offered his hand to Makoto. “Sometimes, heroes can do only that, but it’s enough.”

 

Makoto took his hand and got to her feet. “Thank you for helping me figure this out. I got to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to think when Mamoru-san said you Shitennou gained human forms again but now.” She smiled. “I’m glad you all are back.” He felt a sting of pain when she pulled his hand out of his, but kept on smiling as she went back and picked up the groceries he had left. “You cooking tonight?”

 

“Attempting to cook, but I admit I could use an expert’s assistance if she’s free tonight.” He told her.

 

“She is!” She said cheerfully. “Lucky you!”

 

So they walked out of the park together as autumn leaves swirled around their feet.

* * *

 

Later that night Nephrite had a dream. He was in his Golden Kingdom uniform and Sailor Jupiter stood before him in the autumn-tinted gardens of Endymion’s palace.

 

“What do you think of her?” She asked him with a serene smile.

 

Nephrite could only stammer. From those words alone he knew who he was speaking to - not Makoto Kino but the Sailor Jupiter he had fallen in love with. Without words he ran to her and wrapped his arms around her. Then he cupped her face but stopped short of kissing her when he noticed her earrings were gone - or rather that he was already used to seeing Makoto Kino’s pink rose earrings.

 

“You’re so stubborn you know.” Sailor Jupiter told him in a teasing voice. “You completely ignored me, what do you think of her?”

 

“I  - What does that matter? You and her, you're not the same!” Nephrite continued to hold her tightly. “She makes me miss you, if anything. She has your honest eyes and her powers feel just as comforting-” She shook her head and rested on his shoulder. “What do you mean ‘no?’?

“She has her own honest eyes and you saw for yourself how she can comfort.” Sailor Jupiter told him. “And I know she has noticed your sincerity, how supportive you can be. I’m glad to see those haven’t changed at least.”

 

“I’ve, I’ve changed?” Nephrite thought aloud. He held her by her shoulders to stare at her. “No, no, I haven’t changed at all! I have not let this new era change me, my love. I promise.”

 

“My love, why did you think I meant “change” as a bad thing?” Sailor Jupiter questioned. “And even if you feel you haven’t changed yet, you will.” She caught a falling orange leaf before it hit the ground. “You taught me that is just what happens on Earth.”

 

“Jupiter,” he breathed. “Why are you telling me this? Do you want me to fall in love with your new life?”

 

“I want you to fall in love, if that’s what you want. The good thing about this new era is that we don’t have to be who we were. Would you really want nothing to change?” Jupiter frowned. “If things don’t change, then endings are the same, you know.”

 

“That’s - That’s not…” Nephrite couldn’t continue, he only casted his angry gaze to the grass littered with leaves. “We were fooled but that’s no excuse! We let Metalia convince us that the Moon Kingdom meant us and our prince harm. We ruined everything! I ruined our chance to be together!” He squeezed his eyes tightly, but he didn’t stop tears from leaking out.

 

He snapped his eyes open when she felt lips on his wet cheeks. Jupiter tilted his chin so she could softly kiss his lips. He kissed her back as tears continued to fall, as if all his futile apologizes and his guilty thoughts poured out instead of water.

 

Eventually, Sailor Jupiter pulled away and wiped his face. “I forgive you, Nephrite, and I want you to find peace.” She told him, putting her leaf into his palms. “Whether it’s with your prince, your companions, Makoto Kino or all by yourself, please find peace. It’s all I can do for you.”

 

“I, I will try…” Nephrite he told her. “Goodbye, Jupiter, my love.”

 

“Goodbye, Nephrite, my love.”

 

He awoke and started to rub the remaining water from his cheeks. The leaf he saw in the dream was in his hand. Nephrite stared at it till the sun began to rise.

 

**Author's Note:**

> A thanks to catandmouse10 and mochi4 (http://mochibuni.tumblr.com/) for doing art work and fanmixes for this fic, and also Emily for being a great beta! Catandmouse10's fanmix can be found here: https://8tracks.com/catandmouse10/kouyou
> 
> When thinking up this story, I wasn't sure what I wanted Nephrite and Makoto's relationship to be. I went back and forth between wanting them to get together and wanting them to only be friends. So that became part of the story, funnily enough. I liked the ambiguous note their relationship ends on, and I like Nephrite struggling with his memories. 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed reading! I look forward to reading other Senshi and Shitennou Bang fics soon!


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